Axe to Grind

by A L Fraine

  Turning right into the car park, she looked back up the road and gave him a none too subtle stare, but he didn’t seem to register it at all.

  Well, she wasn’t about to stand here and wait for him. Emily walked into the car park and threaded her way through the few remaining vehicles that were left this late at night.

  Hers was a little deeper in, and she soon spotted it and pulled her keys out. The moment she knew she was in range, she started pressing the button on the key fob, unlocking the car, ready for a swift entrance. As she closed the last few metres to the driver's side door, she decided to have one last check behind her.

  He was much closer and heading right for her. There was no doubt in her mind now that he was following her. There was nothing else that he would be interested in.

  Without thinking, she covered the last few metres in a jog.

  Had he called out?

  She missed it. What had he said?

  Pulling the door open, she jumped in, hitting the lock button as quickly as she could and jamming the keys into the ignition. It took her three tries to insert it, and as the keys slid home, the man reached her window…

  …and knocked.

  She looked up.

  The man sported greying hair and a smile and was holding up one of her gloves.

  “You dropped this.”

  Emily blinked, and for a long moment, found herself unable to breathe. Then she suddenly released the breath and gasped as relief flooded through her body. She couldn’t help but laugh.

  “Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you,” the man said. “I’m not quite the spring chicken I used to be and couldn’t catch you up.”

  Emily rolled down her window a few inches, and he slipped the glove through the gap.

  “Thank you, I’m sorry,” she said.

  “That’s okay. Have a nice evening,” he said, and with a friendly smile, doffed his cap and walked off.

  Emily watching him go and shook her head as he disappeared beyond a car and a white van.

  She’d been silly. But she guessed it was better to be safe than sorry. She’d never been seriously stalked but had dealt with unwanted comments from men several times in her life. She’d just always tried to be careful, to watch her surroundings, and be aware of people around her.

  Occasionally she got spooked at something totally innocent, but she guessed that was better than the alternative.

  As her heart slowed and returned to a more regular speed, she set off, driving out the car park and heading home. She put the radio on and turned it up in an effort to take her mind off things as she went.

  Reaching her road, she pulled in and got out of the car. The street was dark and quiet, the street lamps casting a dull glow over the scene as she walked the few metres to her home.

  She still couldn’t believe how stupid she’d been. How could she not have realised that he was harmless, and was just trying to return her property?

  She shook her head as she fiddled with her keys and stepped up to her front door. It unlocked easily, and as she stepped inside, she heard something behind her. A rapid-fire thunder of feet on concrete as a shadow lunged for her. He tackled her through the doorway. The attacker’s weight threw her to the floor with a thud, knocking the breath right out of her.

  Winded, she gasped, struggling for a breath that wouldn’t come. His hand held her by the throat as she panicked, sucking in air, and trying to get her lungs to work properly. She was dimly aware of her door being slammed shut and the shadowy man placing his two hands around her throat.

  Just as her lungs decided they wanted to breathe again, she found she couldn’t. His grip wouldn’t let her. She tried to fight, to push him off. But she had no strength left, and she succumbed quickly to the darkness and the sweet embrace of oblivion.

  17

  Sitting up in bed, Jon wiped the sleep from his eyes and stretched, before leaning back on his headboard and thinking back to the incredibly pleasant evening he’d spent with Kate in the pub.

  Fun was probably the word he’d use to describe his feelings towards the evening.

  He’d actually had a fun night.

  Kate was great company and he’d found her engaging with a keen wit that he appreciated. Also, it was good to get away from the working day and the stresses that the case brought with it.

  Telling people that their child has been killed was horrific and never got easier, so being able to step away from that, and have a normal evening, talking about more everyday things, was a blessing.

  Plus, Kate was great company.

  He liked her.

  Quite a lot.

  Shaking his head, Jon tried to banish those thoughts. He wasn’t sure if it was appropriate for him to be looking at someone on his team in that way. Plus, there was his ever-present guilt to deal with as well.

  He knew the rules regarding relationships within the police. They weren’t banned by any stretch, and in fact, dating someone who knew the demands and stresses of the job could actually be beneficial. The main thing was that any relationship should not compromise the police or their ability to properly investigate a case or do their job.

  Her being his subordinate might be an issue, and might cause those higher up to consider moving one of them, but it might also be fine.

  It wouldn’t be for him to decide anyway. Besides, it was far too early to be thinking of such things. Premature, in fact, given that nothing had actually happened.

  No, Jon’s larger issue was his feelings, and as his mind drifted back to Charlotte, he wondered how she’d have felt about it. He’d never had a chance to talk to her about this kind of thing. There was no warning that her end was fast approaching.

  She’d been cruelly stolen from him by that bastard who had, in turn, changed Jon’s life forever.

  He would never be the same again, not least in the way he thought about other women and the idea of being with anyone else. Charlotte had been his life. She’d been amazing and he’d loved her with every fibre of his being. Was there anyone else out there like her? Would he ever find someone who could match up to who she’d been?

  He honestly had his doubts that he’d ever be able to find a love like that again, and yet, he also knew it was possible, and that he was just thinking about it wrong.

  He wasn’t replacing Charlotte. She’d still be there in his memories. She’d helped shape him into the man he was today, and no one could ever take that from him. It was more about him just moving on and living his life. Charlotte would never want him to be miserable. She’d not want him to live the rest of his life alone, either.

  She’d want him to be happy, to find love, and family. That’s what she’d want.

  But would Kate be interested in him? Most likely not. He was a mess, after all, and several years older than her. She probably wouldn’t want someone with his baggage, either.

  Who would?

  With a grunt, Jon got up, got dressed, and headed downstairs to partake in the wonders of the hotel breakfast, again lamenting that there was no black pudding in the delicacies that were on offer. He’d asked, but for whatever reason—and he’d not really gotten a clear reason why—it just wasn’t on the menu at this time.

  A small part of him wanted to head to a local butcher so he could bring it in himself, but there was a far larger part of him that told him not to be such a prick.

  Suck it up, Pilgrim.

  Besides, once he got a place of his own, it would most likely be a quick bowl of cereal in the morning rather than the belt-busting, fat-filled, heart attack on a plate that this was.

  Just enjoy it while you can.

  In short order, Jon was out of the hotel and heading east towards the station, cursing the traffic as he went, and feeling smugly superior to the queues crawling into town going the other way.

  Walking into the office, Jon looked left over the array of desks and workstations, wondering if Kate or any of the others would be there. He spotted Nathan, who always seemed to be in early, as well as
Dion who was hunkered down at his machine, but no Kate. Was she not in yet? Had he scared her off?

  But as he walked, Kate wandered out of the break room with a morning tea. She spotted him, and Jon felt a flush of blood rush through him on seeing her.

  She smiled and pointed to the mug in her hand. “Want one?”

  “Sure,” he replied with a nod. “That would be lovely.”

  “Won’t be a moment, kettle’s boiled,” she replied as she placed the mug she was holding beside Nathan.

  Jon smiled and walked into his private office, only to pause and remember how Kate actually made tea.

  He rolled his eyes with a sigh, but then shrugged.

  Whatever.

  Jon dumped his stuff, firing up the PC, and starting to go through the case in his head again. They were no closer to catching this guy. Yesterday’s new body had led them to focus on questioning the seemingly endless numbers of students that knew Mollie, rather than on Harper and the links she had to the criminal community. The issue being that Harper’s circle of friends seemed like a much richer environment for finding someone capable of committing these murders, but things could be deceptive and were often never what they first appeared to be.

  And then there was the nagging worry that it had been another day, and if the killer kept up this same pattern of behaviour, there might be another body out there somewhere, waiting for someone to find it.

  Shit, it all felt like such a mess, and after such a promising start that first day.

  “Hey there,” Kate said as she walked in. Jon noticed she was wearing a knee-length skirt today, rather than trousers, and found his eyes drawn to her shape briefly, before pulling them away and smiling at her.

  “Thanks.” He accepted the tea and eyed the liquid within critically. “So, did you…”

  “My tea making skills are perfectly acceptable, but if you want to get up off yeh arse and make your own tea, be my guest, but that’s all I’m giving you.”

  “Fair point.” Jon smiled. “Thanks for last night.”

  She visibly relaxed. “No problem.”

  “It’s exactly what I needed, I think. Just to do something normal, you know?”

  “Yeah,” she replied with a smile. “I know. It’s good to just get away from all this… right?”

  He nodded. “The good company helped too,” he added and looked up at her over his mug as he took a sip.

  He felt sure he caught the briefest flash of embarrassment from her, just a hint of a flush as she smiled back. “It was good to talk to you too, just person to person, you know, and not DCI to DS.”

  He nodded.

  “If you want some normality again sometime…” She smiled at him.

  “I’ll keep that in mind,” he replied.

  She nodded, turned to walk away, only to stop in the doorway and look back. “Briefing shortly?”

  “You read my mind. Get the team together. I’ll be out in a mo.”

  She nodded and winked before stepping out. Jon watched her go, feeling his heart thud in his chest as she disappeared from view.

  Was she flirting with him? He felt like she was, but couldn’t be certain of it. He did his best to banish those thoughts from his mind, though. The last thing he needed was to become distracted at this stage in the case.

  This was probably what the guidelines on relationships were meant for, to keep this kind of thing from happening and impacting investigations.

  A short time later, as Jon was finishing up his morning check on his emails, Nathan appeared at his door.

  “I think we’re ready for you,” he said.

  “Oh, crap, yeah,” he said and got up. “Sorry, got bogged down in emailing the Nigerian prince who wants to send me his fortune.”

  Nathan smirked. “That was last month’s scam, I think.”

  “Yeah, and next months,” Jon replied as he gathered his folder.

  “So,” Nathan said, “how was your date?”

  Jon froze, and then looked up. “My what?”

  “You went to the pub with Irish last night. How was it?”

  Jon tilted his head. “I’m not sure it was a date, exactly.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “I, um…” Jon’s mind raced as he thought things through, and as much as he had thought it might have been one, he hesitated to call it that. “Did she say that to you?”

  Nathan grimaced. “She didn’t have to. I can tell.”

  “How?”

  “Well, for one, she’s never worn a skirt to work before.”

  “Oh, well, I’m not sure what that tells you. Maybe her other stuff’s in the wash? But our evening at the pub was very nice, thank you,” Jon replied, choosing his words carefully.

  Nathan smiled briefly as Jon picked up his things and moved towards the door.

  “Good,” Nathan replied, his tone becoming serious as he moved in front of Jon. “I wouldn’t want her to get hurt.” His tone was full of menace and implication.

  Stopping, Jon eyed Nathan. “What are you implying?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Good. Because I wouldn’t want to hurt her, not that anything is happening between us, or that it’s any of your business, frankly. So step away, DI Halliwell.”

  Nathan sighed, and Jon could see the confrontation within him die away.

  “Sorry, guv. I just… I worry about her. She’s been through a lot recently and I just don’t want to see her get hurt.”

  “I understand that, but the drinks were entirely innocent.”

  “Sure.”

  “I don’t want to see anyone on my team get hurt, just in case that wasn’t clear. I understand that Kate had a close encounter with Mr Devlin kidnapping her neighbour, and I wouldn’t want any of you to have something like that happen.” As he spoke, those same horrific memories of Charlotte flashed in his mind.

  He wouldn’t wish that on anyone, least of all Kate or any other member of this team.

  “Yeah, well, there’s a little more to it than that, but that’s for her to tell you, not me.”

  “Oh? Yeah, sure. I guess.” More to it? What more could there be? Had she been through something similar to him?

  “Come on, guys, hurry it up,” Rachel called out across the room from the entrance of the incident room.

  “Sorry, guv,” Nathan said.

  “It’s already forgotten.”

  Nathan nodded and walked over to the incident room to join the others who were sat around the table waiting for them.

  “Right then, so what have we got?” Jon began as he placed his folder down on the desk and took his seat. “Two victims, Mollie Hayes and Harper Richards, both killed in the exact same way, right?” Jon looked over at Sheridan.

  “Identical,” she replied. “Both were beaten, tied up, then had their fingers cut off, before being left to bleed out from deep cuts in their wrists.”

  “Right,” Jon replied. “So this has to be the same perpetrator, and there has to be some kind of meaning behind the way he kills these girls. He wouldn’t do it like that otherwise. Now, Rachel, I believe you have a few more interviews to do with Mollie’s student-friends, right?”

  “That’s right. We’ll be there for the morning, I think.”

  “Okay, now, while there wasn’t any obvious link between Mollie and Harper, I also think her friends, Rupa and Bradley, were holding something back. I think Mollie went out to buy some drugs for them to use but got intercepted. I have no idea if that links into her death, but I really want to see if we can push them to admit what Mollie really went out for.”

  “I can see if I can talk to them again today,” Rachel replied.

  “That would be good, thanks. So, back to Harper, and the link to the Millers gang. Did we have any developments there?”

  “We did, actually,” Nathan replied. “It turns out the guy that was with Dillon Harris was Carson Miller.”

  “He was the one that attacked Tom, right? Seth’s flatmate?”

  “Right,” Nat
han replied. “I knew I recognised him from somewhere, but it took some digging last night for me to find the name.”

  “Is Carson a main member of the family then?”

  “Low level, but still a Miller, so yeah.”

  “I want to talk to him,” Jon said.

  “Figured you would,” Nathan replied with a smile. “I’ve pulled his details.”

  “Perfect. What about her missing father, Peter Richards, anything there? Do we even know where he is yet?”

  “Nope,” Dion replied. “Our Scottish cousins are looking for him, but so far, nothing.”

  “Damn, he’s probably off hunting Nessie or something. Right then, any reports of new bodies, or is our killer having a day off?”

  “Nothing yet, guv,” Kate replied. Jon nodded. It felt kind of odd her calling him guv after last night, but he’d have to get used to it. He was her boss after all, whether he was just a work colleague or something more. “Looks like our guy might have had a rest.”

  “Or we just haven’t found it yet…” Jon muttered, getting a bad feeling in his gut. This killer wouldn’t just stop for no reason.

  “Okay,” Jon continued. “Rachel, I want you and Nathan at the university finishing off those statements.”

  “I’ve got to be at the courthouse again today, but not till later,” Nathan cut in.

  “Fair enough. Do what you can to help. Meanwhile, Kate and I will see about paying Mr Carson Miller a visit. The rest of you, I’m sure, have lots to be getting on with.”

  There was a knock on the incident room door. Jon looked up to see Debbie Constable stood outside looking at him.

  “Looks like your comment to her yesterday had an effect,” Kate commented.

  “Mmm,” Jon replied and waved for her to come in. “What is it?” he asked as she opened the door.

  “We’ve had a walk-in. Bradley Porter, a friend of Mollie Hayes?”

  “Oh, really?”

  She nodded. “He’s in interview room one.”

  18

  “So, what was Nathan talking to you about?” Kate asked.

  “Nothing really,” Jon replied as he followed Kate through the station towards the interview suite.